emergencyalertsystemfandomcom-20200214-history
Emergency Action Notification
An Emergency Action Notification, (abbreviation: EAN) is one of the most important types of alerts on the list. It is a national alert, warning everyone within the country of an emergency that is affecting the entire United States. If a legitimate EAN message is sent, it will likely originate from the President of the United States (as the president is the only one in congress allowed to send out this type of alert), with the help of FEMA. When the emergency is no longer a danger to the public, an Emergency Action Termination message will be sent out to the same sources as an all-clear signal and a notice to broadcasters that their station(s) may continue normal programming. There is often a misconception that there is a "global alert" version of the Emergency Action Notification, but it does not exist. How can this alert be issued? An Emergency Action Notification will only be issued if there is a real emergency that is threatening the entire United States such as a nationwide power outage or a nuclear attack. This message would include information and precaution advice regarding any emergency that is affecting the majority of the United States, such as an attack from an unknown organization. The EAN code can only be activated by the President of the United States or PEPS (Primary Entry Point System). Why does this get issued? The purpose of an Emergency Action Notification message is to alert those in the United States of a danger to their safety. This message would include precautions on how to protect yourself and limit injury and damage from the danger. Where will I be able to hear this? An Emergency Action Notification would be sent to every broadcasting source possible. All TV and Radio stations will interrupt programming only to focus on this alert. Some stations may go off the air until the alert ends. However, most stations will remain on the air in order to provide news and information to the public. You can also get Wireless Emergency Alerts on your phone if you turned on Presidential Alerts (which is required by law for most American service providers with these capabilities). Has there ever been a real EAN before? For the purpose of informing the United States of an actual emergency, an Emergency Action Notification was only sent out twice. However, the United States government does also coordinate tests of EAN capabilities, now under a National Periodic Test message. Since it's creation no president has ever used it. The two times it has been sent out it was by pure accident. Non Test EAN On February 20th, 1971, an EAN was accidentally sent because the wrong message was played. This originally was supposed to be a simple test of the then-known EBS. They announced that this was a false alarm, which was accidentally caused. Examples National test results Results of November 9, 2011 test Screen announcing the nationwide test of the EAS, November 9, 2011, mainly generated by the EAS decoder at cable operator headends, listing that the test was generated within the District of Columbiarather than locally. On November 9, 2011, after the national test was attempted, stations began calling in saying that some of their receivers were not able to relay the test or simply just did not get the test at all; DirecTV users reported even hearing Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" throughout the test. This was due to DirecTV using an off-air channel to deliver the SAME header for the message, which was also playing "Paparazzi" at the time the header was broadcast. On April 12, 2013, the FCC released the results of the November 9, 2011 test. According to the FCC, 18% of stations failed to either receive or retransmit the alert. The message, according to some, also lacked the alert code which would allow the President to speak. Due to a feedback loop in the PEP system, the test could be heard several times in the background, and the EOM (end of message) code was sent twice, violating EAS rules. The test was cut down to 30 seconds rather than the proposed three minutes. Although there were several frequently reported issues, the FCC stated that the test demonstrated that the national EAS architecture is basically sound. Some of these problems included: * Bad audio quality ** A malfunction at the National Primary level inserted a second level of header tones into the audio portion of the message, which created a large-delay reverb effect and noisy background levels, which increased in intensity each time the EAN message was passed on. Since then, FEMA has reconfigured their equipment correctly. * Lack of a Primary Entry Point in some areas, leaving those areas without a direct connection to FEMA ** At the time of the test, there was no established Primary Entry Point in Portland, Oregon. The Oregon EAS State Plan instructed all stations west of the Cascades (including Portland) to monitor public radio station KOPB-FM, which would receive the alert from the NPR Squawk Channel. The audio quality of the alert that KOPB-FM received via the NPR Squawk Channel was exceptionally poor, and most monitoring stations' equipment did not recognize the alert at all or only broadcast the first few seconds of the alert. The FCC has since expanded PEP coverage to West of the Cascades (including Portland). * Use of alternatives to PEP-based EAN distribution ** The FCC found that some stations chose to use alternatives to the PEP-based daisy-chain mode of propagation, and that some of these alternatives may not be able to receive the EAN effectively in times of emergency. The FCC has advised these stations to request approval from the FCC for these alternative ways of receiving the EAN. * Inability of some participants to receive/transmit the EAN ** Some EAS Participants stated that, although they heard the EAN from their monitoring stations, they were not able to rebroadcast it to their audience. The FCC found that the cause of this was usually operator error, or that the Participant's equipment was programmed incorrectly. * Short test length ** The FCC found that some EAS equipment manufacturers designed their equipment to not rebroadcast EANs shorter than 75 seconds due to a misinterpretation of the FCC regulations. Another EAS Participant suggested that the 30 second duration of the test was insufficient to allow its engineers to manually override its equipment when automatic equipment functions failed. * The use of the Emergency Action Notification process (which had never been used before) and a Washington, D.C. location code was also believed to have caused confusion to viewers, as there was a lack of public awareness of how the national test would be delivered. The first-ever Nationwide EAS Test was a success in that it demonstrated that the national EAS would generally perform as designed, if activated. At the same time, the test showed several areas that needed improvement. Results of September 28, 2016 test Results of this test were released by the FCC on April 21, 2017, remarking that it "demonstrated that the Internet-based distribution of alerts via IPAWS has modernized the EAS and greatly improved the quality, effectiveness, and accessibility of EAS alerts". However, half of the participants did not use IPAWS to receive the message, some "failed to receive or retransmit alerts due to erroneous equipment configuration, equipment readiness and upkeep issues, and confusion regarding EAS rules and technical requirements", and that participation among low-power broadcasters was low. Rather than delivering it as an EAN, the 2016 test was delivered with a new designation, "National Periodic Test" (NPT), and an explicit location code designating the entire country. These changes reduced viewer confusion and technical problems, and made the test resemble other routine tests.Category:Most Important Alerts